Visa Debit generates 500,000 contactless payments in Ireland

Half a million contactless payments have been made in Ireland with Visa Debit contactless cards to date.

Payments technology firm Visa Europe predicts that 2m contactless payments made with Visa Debit cards will take place by the end of the year, which would mean a reduction of about US€10m in cash usage in the next six months alone.

The company also estimates that 70pc of Irish adults with bank accounts will have a Visa Debit contactless card.

Several retailers in Ireland, including McDonald’s, Insomnia, Arnotts, Boots, Centra, Marks and Spencer, Spar, Eurospar and Mace, have already adopted contactless payments and a number of other retailers in the country are putting the technology in place.

Anyone with a Visa Debit contactless card can pay for transactions of €15 or less just by touching their card to the terminal without the need to enter a PIN (personal identification number).

Benefits of contactless payments

Besides offering consumers a fast and secure way to pay for purchases, contactless payments help retailers cut the amount of time shoppers spend queueing at a till, and will also prepare retailers to accept mobile payments in the future. The same terminal has the technology to accept payment via a contactless card or a mobile phone.

“Our research shows that Irish consumers spend 11.2m minutes a day queueing in shops to pay for low-value purchases,” said Conor Langford, country manager Ireland, Visa Europe.

“Contactless payments will help to reduce the time people spend queueing, allowing them to enjoy their purchase and offering an improved customer journey to retailers in the process.”

Visa Europe claims that since the introduction of contactless payments, Visa card fraud has continued to fall and is currently at its lowest ever level across Europe.